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Hail the new Strawberry Queen!
Old police station to come down
The one-time Ponchatoula Jail, court, and police station
will be demolished to make way for an expanded parking
complex that will include the former First Guaranty Bank
property at West Hickory and North Sixth Street. Police
Chief Bry Layrisson has signed off on the plan. (Times Photo)
Notable Ponchatoula Fires
House Fires
By JIM PERRIN
Educator and Historian
(Part 4 of 6 in a Series)
The loss of one's home and accumulated possessions is a griev-
ous setback in life even when not aggravated by persona] injury or
loss of life.
Many Ponchatoula homeown-
ers lived on marginal incomes
and did not carry fire insurance
to mitigate their losses. Listed
below are just a few of the early
house fires in this area noted in
local newspapers.
The J. N. Muller home locat.
ed two miles from Ponchatoula,
was totally destroyed by fire in
January 1890, probably from
a defective flue, with a loss es-
timated at $4,400, which was
partly covered by insurance.
The residence of Charles H.
Haight in Ponchatoula was de-
stroyed by a fire in November
1909 which started in the kitch-
en and spread rapidly. John Ak-
: ers, an aged Confederate veter-
an was in the house at the time
nd barely escaped.
The house was occupied by
Mr. Haight's son William Haight
and his family. It was valued at
$2,000 and was uninsured.
The home and barn belonging
to B. G. Davies located six miles
east of Ponchatoula at Davies
Ferry on the Tangipahoa River
burned with a loss estimated at
$5,500 in February 1911.
Later that same year the un-
insured six room winter home
of Ponchatoula newspaper edi-
tor H. W. Wren was completely
destroyed. The roaring flames
awakened Mrs. Wren and her
four children and they rushed
out of the house in their night-
clothes and found refuge from
the cold in their barn.
Times Report
The Ponchatoula City Council will vote on a $7,015,225 pro-
posed municipal budget at its June 9 meeting.
That includes a five percent across-the-board raise for all em-
JUNE 5, 2014 34 th YEAR NUMBER 36 50 €
I
Council to vote on Zabbia's over-S7 million city budget
ployees, and an additional two percent set aside for merit raises.
Buoyed by the anticipation of $70,000 per month ($900,000 per
year) in sales taxes, largely from sales at the Ponchatoula Wal-
mart, the Bob Zabbia Administration plans to purchase a new fire
truck, a pumper, to supplement the 30-plus year-old pumper now
owned by the city.
The mayor emphasized in his Times interview Friday that his
administration is working on a conservative estimation of in-
Ponchatoula to get new
city bus service
Times Report
Fifty cents will buy you a bus ride on a bus route to strategic
destinations around Ponchatoula, to North Oaks Medical Center,
where you can transfer to the Hammond line for another fifty cents
and shop or visit doctors in that city, or ride to Hammond Square
and beyond.
The bus route is expected to begin a schedule that will take a
bus on a one hour route with up to 10 stops once it is approved by
the Ponchatoula City Council.
PLEASE SEE PAGE 8
ParkinQ 9arage could be the answer
Success choking downtown
Ponchatoula
By BRYAN T. McMAHON
The Times has long editorialized in favor of building a down-
town parking garage to free parking spaces for customers of our
downtown businesses. And now, in this city budget cycle, it seems
to be a possible achievement for Ponchatoula.
............. PLEASE SEE
Historian Jim Perrin
John Fisher Jr.'s home and
the personal effects were de-
stroyed by fire in February
1912 with the loss estimated
at $2,500. The family of local
farmer F. C. Parker fled from
their home in April 1916 as
flames devoured their unin-
sured home. Mr. Parker's home
was said to have been valued at
$1,500 with about $1,000 worth
of furniture lost, but no one was
reported physically hurt.
Homes inside the town of
Ponchatoula generally fared
PLEASE SEE PAGE 8
Photo by Craig Williams - Southland Photography
Former Ponchatoula police station to be razed
FGB property to be
purchased for parking
By BRYAN T. McMAHON
The Bob Zabbia Administration continues to hit home
runs when it comes to targeting and capturing state
and federal grants.
For instance, the city will
only have to come up with 25
% of the cost of buying the stra-
Rain or shine, they said and buyers turned out
(Times Photo)
Rain? What rain?
An early morning wash down courtesy of Mother Na-
ture on Saturday did little to deter bargain hufiters seek-
ing deals at the Chamber's Kathy Allen location in the first
block of North Seventh Street. (Times Photo)
tegic downtown lot left vacant
and leveled by First Guaranty
Bank at the corner of Sixth and
Hickory.
And the city expects to pay
only 25% of the cost of closing-
in what some wits have called
the "Grand Canyon of Pon-
chatoula," the gaping ditch
which is expected to cost a total
of $655,000 in FEMA Disaster
Recovery monies 'before it is
filled with giant box and stan-
dard culverts.
The Zabbia Administration
hopes to be awarded additional
funding to pay for any increas-
es in cost since the project got
started.
Other planned improvements
to the city in Mayor Bob Zab-
bia's proposed $7 million-plus
budget include:
Cleaning and repainting
the city water tower (look for
the city's new logo when it is
painted), a $300,000 project
at Athletic Park. This is made
possible by the just-completed
successful linking of city water
towers, so one can be taken off-
line for repairs without the city
experiencing a water pressure
crisis.
Purchase of the old First
Guaranty Bank branch location
on North Sixth and West Hick-
ory Streets, demolishing the
PLEASE SEE PAGE 8
0 Eit PONCHA TO UIA I
By OLE HARDHIDE
The Alligator
Last week I told you how Dr. Kathleen Elstrott is mov-
ing home and buying the house next door to her parents
and close to her new job at the Ponchatoula Animal Hospi-
tal, but that doesn't begin to compare to the musical chairs
switching of homes involving past police chief James McK-
night and his Mary, who sold their North Sixth Street home
to Mike and Ginnie Bohning, themselves buying from Larry
Wilson and his Paula the former Councilman C.W. Kinchen
home on West Hickory next to All Saints Episcopal.
Encore, Encore, is the cry of those who missed the great
Art Station knife making event centered on knife mak-
er Brad Johnson who was introduced by President of the
Friends of the Art Station Catherine Hoffer.
The next time First Lady Kim Zabbia and her gang of art
aficionados and practitioners announce a series such as this
past one devoted largely to the spoken word, start lining up
at the door. It was fantastic.
Likewise, Chris Roussel has a winner on his hands bring-
ing in super talent from Nashville and other points on the
musical compass to his namesake jewelry-antiques-music
shop in the historic Richardson Hardware Building in the
first block of West Pine. He is asking for co-sponsors to step
forward to help him keep attracting visitors to town from
our surrounding cities and beyond, especially to his excel-
lent Guitar Show.
'One professional gentlemen, a reader of The Times, came
to town this past weekend from New Iberia and was sur-
prised to find no live musical entertainment scheduled, and
the city's two new super venues still not quite ready to open:
Roux & Brew where C'est Bon Restaurant formerly held
forth in the Hotard & Goode Building ih the very center of
town, and Warehouse 140 Restaurant & Salobn in the late
Stanley Cowen's Ponchatoula Auction Company next to Mi
Patio Mexican Restaurant.
Both venues are expected to at last open their doors, at
PLEASE SEE PAGE 4
The Ponchatoula Times - Call 985-386-2877 - P.O. Box 743 - Ponchatoula, LA 70454-0743 - editor@! )onchatoula.com